Claude Debussy Flashcards
dates
1862-1918
where was he born
saint germain en laye, france
family background and early music education
father was a china shop owner, mother was a seamstress, began piano lessons at age seven. Studied at the Paris Conservatoire. aspired to be a concert pianist but soon turned to composition.
teachers included
Antoine Francois marmontel (piano), Emile Durand (harmony), Ernest Guiraud (composition)
what award was he given?
prix de Rome for the cantata l’enfant prodigue
enjoyed a career as a…
pianist, collaborative artist, conductor
romantic life
had several scandalous romantic relationships
first job
piano teacher for family of Nadezhda von Neck, Tchaikovsky’s patron, music critic for La Revue blanche, an artistic journal published in Paris
where was he exposed to asian art and music
Paris world exposition
how did he gain fame and notoriety?
prelude a l’apres midi d’un faune
when did he marry his first wife, Rosalie texier?
1899
when did he marry his second wife, Emma Bardac?
1909, their daughter Claude Emma was born in 1905
what contemporary composers did he interact with in Paris?
Gabriel faure, Erik Satie, Ernest Chausson, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky
death
march 25, 1918 of cancer
describe his musical style
original and innovative, influential in both France and internationally
what was he influenced by?
impressionist painters, set the poetry of symbolist poets Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme and Paul Verlaine.
how does his work relate to symbolism?
experimented with unorthodox approaches to grammar and syntax through formal structure and phrasing: evoking rather than narrating, suggesting rather than depicting.
did he stick to western scale systems?
no, he explored non western scale systems such as whole tone, pentatonic and modal scales.
innovative forms of writing
innovative approach to harmony, parallel chord streams, open fifths and octaves reminiscent of the earliest polyphonic practices (organum), quartile harmony (chords built on fourths). varied use of rhythm, for example, free flowing and rhapsodic, motor, dance like
_______ elements
programmatic elements (pastoral themes, water imagery, sunlight, moonlight)
genres
orchestral, chamber, piano, opera, vocal, ballet
